Kirsten Gillibrand in CBS "Face the Nation" interviews during 2019

On Abortion:
Democratic candidates must support reproductive freedom

What I do not accept is any Democratic leader or candidate to not believe in full civil rights and human rights for women. We cannot have Democrats who are running for office who do not believe in basic health care and civil rights for women. It's just
untenable, and it's unacceptable, and I will not support a candidate, and I do not believe any candidate running for President should be undermining women's reproductive freedom and our basic human rights.

On Immigration:
For border security, but don't harm asylum seekers

I would fund the border security measures that are anti-terrorism, anti-human trafficking, anti-drug trafficking, and anti-gun trafficking and I would defund these for-profit prison systems that are harming children and harming families who are seeking
our asylum. If someone is seeking asylum, I would assign them a lawyer. They don't need to be incarcerated. They can go into the community in the way we used to handle these cases under the Department of Justice.

On Health Care:
Provide a public option to get to universal coverage

The biggest worry almost every family in America has is the cost of health care because the insurance industry doesn't care. So the reason why I believe in Medicare for All is I think any family should have access to at least one not for profit public
option so they can compete with the for profit insurance industry that just has to make their quarterly profits and pay their shareholders value and make sure their CEO is make millions of dollars. If you buy into Medicare in the same way you buy into
your Social Security as an earned benefit it is far less expensive for every American than the amount of money they are paying now to the insurance industry. Let them buy in, let them just invest four percent of income, which is what our bill says, to
get access in the same way they invest six percent of their income into Social Security. If create it as a social safety net, people will get higher quality care that is less expensive, and they will always be covered.

On Immigration:
Pathway to citizenship for DREAMers

Q: Is Trump's offer of three years of protection for DACA recipients enough?

A: If you talk to any DACA recipient today, they're anxious. They're worried. They might be at school--they don't know if they can finish school. They might be getting
married. Their lives are being upended and this President has no compassion. I don't think you should even consider this because it's three years. Why not a permanent pathway to citizenship so they actually could have certainty about their lives.